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B2B M&A: Deals Up 27% While Deal Value Spikes 1,300%+ For First 3Qs of 2018

October 25, 2018 by Matt
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The number of deals in the B2B Media & Technology category grew a healthy 27 percent to 80 transactions in the first nine months of 2018 while deal value leaped 1,326 percent, thanks to several deals worth more than $1 billion, according the JEGI Q3 2018 M&A Overview. 

The $1.3 billion acquisition of Dun & Bradstreet by Thomas H. Lee was the largest deal B2B Media & Technology of the third quarter, while the Carlyle Group selling its stake in Getty Images to the Getty Family accounted for $3 billion. Deals specifically in B2B media included MidOcean partners buying Questex for an estimated $180 million while Boyne Capital purchased AC Business Media.

Both the number of deals and deal value slipped in the Database and Information Services category for the first nine months of the year, down 20 percent and 58 percent, respectively.

While Informa’s first quarter acquisition of UBM for $5.2 billion will likely define M&A in Exhibitions and Conferences for 2018, the category saw deal value grow 21 percent while deal value jumped 418 percent, thanks to in part to third quarter transactions such as the sale of Vendome Behavioral Health conferences to HMP Communications and the sale of UK tech and pharma event producer FC Business Intelligence to Lloyd’s Capital Group.

While total deal value for the eight categories (B2B Media & Technology, Database and Information Services, Exhibitions and Conferences, Marketing Services & Technology, Mobile Media & Technology, Software and Tech-Enabled Services) tracked in the report grew 41 percent to $221 billion for the first nine months of the year, JEGI cautions that the fourth quarter could see an M&A slowdown due to a number of regulatory and geopolitical developments such as tariffs, NAFTA and Brexit.   



Matt Matt Kinsman is vice president of content + programming at Connectiv, the only association focused on the integrated b-to-b model—including publications, events, digital media, marketing services and business information. Prior to joining Connectiv's predecessor American Business Media in 2011, Kinsman was executive editor of Folio:, the leading information provider for the magazine industry.